Explained the benefits of setting LC_ALL properly

git-svn-id: http://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/LFS/trunk/BOOK@3865 4aa44e1e-78dd-0310-a6d2-fbcd4c07a689

3 files changed, 33 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/chapter01/changelog.xml b/chapter01/changelog.xml
index 4c39811c0..4c083f41f 100644
--- a/chapter01/changelog.xml
+++ b/chapter01/changelog.xml
@@ -77,6 +77,9 @@ first a summary, then a detailed log.</para>
 </itemizedlist>
 </listitem>
 
+<listitem><para>June 29, 2004 [alexander]: Explained the benefits of setting
+LC_ALL properly.</para></listitem>
+
 <listitem><para>June 28, 2004 [winkie]: Upgraded to Udev 028, and dropped the
 Udev permissions patch.</para></listitem>
 
diff --git a/chapter07/profile.xml b/chapter07/profile.xml
index 2ec314397..731dff0fc 100644
--- a/chapter07/profile.xml
+++ b/chapter07/profile.xml
@@ -35,15 +35,34 @@ Shells.</emphasis></para>
 <filename>~/.bash_profile</filename> are read when the shell is invoked
 as an interactive login shell.</para>
 
-<para>A base <filename>/etc/profile</filename> created below only sets some
-environment variables necessary for Bash to accept keystrokes properly,
-even in non-English locale. Replace <replaceable>[ll]</replaceable> with the
+<para>A base <filename>/etc/profile</filename> created below sets some
+environment variables necessary for native language support. By setting them
+properly, you get:
+</para>
+<itemizedlist>
+<listitem><para>the output of programs translated into your native
+language;</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>correct classification of characters into letters, digits and
+other classes - this is necessary for Bash to accept non-ASCII characters
+in command lines properly in non-English locales;</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>the alphabetical sorting order correct for your
+country;</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>good default paper size;</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>correct formatting of monetary, time and date
+values.</para></listitem>
+</itemizedlist>
+
+<para>This script also sets the INPUTRC environment variable that makes
+<application>Bash</application> and <application>Readline</application> use
+the <filename>/etc/inputrc</filename> file we created earlier.</para>
+
+<para>Replace <replaceable>[ll]</replaceable> below with the
 two-letter code for your language (e.g., <quote>en</quote>) and
 <replaceable>[CC]</replaceable> with the two-letter code for your country
 (e.g., <quote>GB</quote>). Also you may need to specify
 (and this is actually the preferred form) your
-character encoding (e.g. <quote>iso8859-1</quote>) after a dot (so that the result
-is <quote>en_GB.iso8859-1</quote>).
+character encoding (e.g. <quote>iso8859-1</quote>) after a dot
+(so that the result is <quote>en_GB.iso8859-1</quote>).
 Issue the following command for more information:</para>
 
 <screen><userinput>man 3 setlocale</userinput></screen>
@@ -58,8 +77,6 @@ the following command:</para>
 
 <screen><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/profile &lt;&lt; "EOF"
 # Begin /etc/profile
-# Written for Linux From Scratch
-# by Alexander E. Patrakov
 
 export LC_ALL=<replaceable>[ll]</replaceable>_<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable>
 export LANG=<replaceable>[ll]</replaceable>_<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable>
@@ -68,6 +85,10 @@ export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
 # End /etc/profile
 EOF</userinput></screen>
 
+<note><para>The <quote>C</quote> (default) and <quote>en_US</quote>
+(the recommended one for for US English users) locales are
+different.</para></note>
+
 <para>Setting the keyboard layout,
 the screen font and the locale-related environment variables
 are the only internationalization steps needed to support
diff --git a/general.ent b/general.ent
index 28c8bce40..b6f0517a7 100644
--- a/general.ent
+++ b/general.ent
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
-<!ENTITY version "SVN-20040628">
-<!ENTITY releasedate "June 28, 2004">
+<!ENTITY version "SVN-20040629">
+<!ENTITY releasedate "June 29, 2004">
 <!ENTITY milestone "6.0">
 
 <!ENTITY lfs-root "http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/">